Franz Kafka

I am afraid of my body, of my senses, of my thinking, of my dreams, of my writing, of my life, of my death.

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

What is the good of a book without pictures or conversations?

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.

If I can write, I can live. If I can't write, I can't live.

There is a goal, but no way; what we call way is hesitation.

I never wish to be easily defined. I'd rather flow like water over and around things, than be contained in a box.

I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in these bones.

Sleep is the most innocent creature and the most, therefore, defenseless. When it is done, when the night is past, it is gone like a dream.

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what's the point of reading it?

I have been so completely absorbed in myself, that I have forgotten to live.

Humor is a good way of making people laugh.

The fact that you are not here, that you are not standing before me, does not stop me from suffering. It only means that my suffering is not for you to see.

My greatest dream is to be able to sleep without dreaming.

I am dirty, Milena, endlessly dirty, which is why I make such a fuss about cleanliness. My poor, dear Milena, you are only a woman, you are not a man, you do not understand that for a man there is always something dirty, something that can never be washed away.

There are some things one can only achieve by a crazy kind of playfulness.

Don't bend; don't water it; don't amend it. Let my soul gravitate to another.

What is the point of a book if it doesn't lead you to a new world?

I need to be alone. I need to think. I need to think about my needs.

My life is a writing, and I am the pen.